Dragon's Claim

Chapter 2-2

DRAKE HAD MADE ARRANGEMENTS for his group’s return. Flights had been booked for four plus one. He looked around the small cottage the red dragons had let them live in, watching three dragon men try to dance around one another to make breakfast. They’d come to offer aid in the white dragon uprising and help begin the process of creating human dragon embassies worldwide.

He never expected that he would leave with his mate in tow, no matter how cross and cold she was. Rhys assured him that the woman he knew now was not the woman she’d been before the uprising. Before, Layla was full of laughter and mischief. The desire to protect, one that they all had burning inside of them, had led her down a path of trauma and confusion.

Drake would uncover the real Layla, not the woman she’d been or the woman she was now, but the woman she wanted to become.

“Sit down when you’re done fighting over the toaster,” Drake instructed.

Each of his men threw wary glances at their leader. Marc was more concerned about the fried eggs in his pan than the nervous energy radiating from his leader. Marc was a calm ocean and his peaceful aura radiated out to those around him. His twin, on the other hand, was a rough river in comparison. Luc opened his mouth to say something, revealing chewed food, when Marc threw a glance at his twin to make Luc wait.

Isaac had a piece of nearly burnt toast hanging from his mouth and his phone, a monstrosity, in his hand as he claimed his seat and glanced at his leader. Drake knew that the Egyptian royal dragon had shared a bit of coding with their tech savvy dragon, quickly earning Isaac’s eternal devotion.

The family Drake led could not be labeled by the beast inside their bodies. Not like the red dragons or white dragons. Each of them had something different lurking inside of them. Isaac had a steel blue beast, scales the color of the sky before a storm that crackled with electricity. It made his love for technology rather touch and go at times. The twins, with their sun-kissed bronze skin hid something more on the tropical end. Their ancestry could be tracked back to the depths of Southern America.

“There will be another dragon coming back with us,” Drake began.

Luc nodded. “Yeah, we heard about the chick.”

Drake leveled a glare at the cheery dragon man. Luc threw his hands up in mock defense, a smirk still tugging the corner of his mouth upward. Drake sighed. He would have to get right to the point with them.

“Layla is my mate,” he declared. The idea of any of his dragons trying to flirt with his mate on the way back home made his scales ruffle. It made his chest rumble with a growl and his lips pull back in a lack of self-control that he hadn’t experienced since he was much younger. “She will be treated with respect. You will treat her as if she is me at all times.”

It was Marc who spoke next. “But, you haven’t laid claim to the woman yet. I can tell by the way she acts with you. She does not know of the bond.”

Drake let out another sigh. Why couldn’t they just take him for his word, just follow instructions? Because they were good men that looked at a problem from every angle. It was why he’d brought them.

Drake spun his coffee mug between his hands, rolling it back and forth as he looked at the dark surface inside it. “I don’t think she’s ready.”

“In other words, you’re afraid she’s going to turn you down.” Luc gave a voice to Drake’s second deepest fear.

It made him growl, a sound that filled every inch of the cottage. He pushed away from the table and leveled his stare at each of his dragons in turn. They would listen to him. They would behave. He could not lose her.

He couldn’t.

Marc nodded. Luc shoved a wad of bacon into his mouth. Isaac bit off the piece of toast he’d been holding before throwing it down on the table.

“Layla is family,” Luc said. “We’ll treat her as such.”

“Damn it,” Drake breathed.

That meant so much more than he’d asked for. The dragons at the table exchanged sly glances and smirks. He hadn’t meant to unleash them on his mate, but, as he thought about it, he wondered if it might be for the best. They were a rowdy and rag-tag group at best, but they were family. They loved one another, no matter the pranks they pulled on one another.

The plastic wrap over the toilet seat had been one of the worst pranks yet. Drake was just glad they hadn’t tried it in the Welsh dragons’ cottage.

The thing was, their rowdy pranks might help pull his mate out of the shell she’d built around herself. If anything, he could see her acting in turn, becoming more and more part of the family each time. Because, like it or not, she was with them for the long run.

Drake hoped.

“Marc. Can you accompany the new leader and the pregnant one to the Embassy today? Their escorts have been called away and they need a fill-in while they negotiate with the white dragon we sent to the Embassy. I fully believe the pregnant one can take care of herself, but they’re far too protective of her to go without an extra body.”

Marc nodded, agreeing because he had nothing else to do. The last escort was taking care of Egyptian dragons that stayed to help their princess. Wales had so quickly become the hub of dragon activity. He hoped that it was for the best. Drake hoped that the dragons here could help repair the relations dragons and humans had.

It wasn’t only the Welsh Occurrence that had wrought such a horrible reputation with humanity. The dragons in the States had been equally awful over time. Many, living somewhat solitary lives, had left trails of disaster across the country.

Luc leapt out of his seat, mouth still half full and slapped Isaac on the shoulder. “If Master says we’re free, want to help me set up something?”

Master. Luc thought he was funny. Drake rounded the table and gave his dragon a rough punch to the shoulder. Not enough to really hurt him, but to remind him why Drake was the master. Luc laughed as he rubbed the now aching spot. Drake didn’t want to know what they would be up to, but trusted they wouldn’t accidentally blow up Snowdonia in their quest for pranks.

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